This week saw the last of the 67 wind turbines being installed on the Dudgeon field and all of them are now producing electricity. During October, the wind farm will provide 410,000 homes in England with electricity.

Thirty-two kilometres off the coast of Norfolk in England the wind farm has grown gradually since the first turbine was installed at the beginning of the year. The wind farm was completed at the agreed time and below the budget of GBP 1.5 billion that was set when the investment decision was made in 2014.

Ever since the first households received electricity already at the beginning of February, all the turbines have joined the production, one by one.

When Dudgeon is fully operational later this year, Statoil will deliver electricity to one million Brits from its offshore wind projects.

“It is wonderful to celebrate that all turbines are fully installed and the offshore operations have been carried out without any serious incidents. Efficiency during installations and completion has been excellent, and I am pleased to see that we are now producing,” says executive vice president for Technology, projects and drilling, Margareth Øvrum.

Building on Statoil’s expertise

“Dudgeon offshore wind farm is part of Statoil’s strategy of gradually supplementing our oil and gas portfolio with profitable renewable energy. Offshore wind has been a natural place to start, as we can build on our maritime expertise, experience from complex projects and our supplier chain. With Dudgeon in full production Statoil is well on its way to providing more than one million households in Europe with renewable electricity,” says Irene Rummelhoff, executive vice president for New Energy Solutions in Statoil.

The offshore wind farm will be operated from Statoil’s office in Great Yarmouth, which is also operating the Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm located 20 kilometres west of Dudgeon.

Many lifts

The Dudgeon project started its 2017 marine season record-early. Already on 2 January, the Sea Challenger lifting vessel mobilized in Hull, England, and lifted the first four towers, the first four nacelles and the first 12 rotor blades on board to be installed on the field.

Since then, the lifting vessel has returned to quay 17 times to pick up new turbine parts for the field. The turbines have been installed in turn: First, the tower was installed on the foundation, followed by the nacelle and finally the three rotor blades – four turbines at a time. The record for turbine installation is less than 18 hours, and the next day they were producing electricity for the grid.

Every turbine requires many lifts. The three tower parts were assembled onshore, then the tower, nacelle and blades were lifted on board the Sea Challenger, which installed the whole turbine on the field. A total of 335 heavy lifts were required offshore and just as many by the quay, in addition to the tower assembly on land.

In addition to Dudgeon, Statoil is operator for the Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm in the UK, which has supplied electricity to around 200,000 homes since 2012. The world’s largest floating wind farm, Hywind Scotland, will come on stream during 2017. Statoil has furthermore a 50% share in the Arkona offshore wind farm in German waters, which is due to come on stream in 2019.